Equality objectives
As a local authority and public sector organisation, we are required under the Public Sector Equality Duty (Equality Act 2010) to prepare and publish equality objectives for the council, at least every 4 years.
Our equality objectives link with the priorities identified in our Corporate Plan, our values and agreed council commitments.
Our equality objectives for 2026-30 are:
Inclusivity
We will promote inclusion through belonging, equity and collaboration. Demonstrating inclusive leadership and partnership working will help us to:
- respect different perspectives and backgrounds
- challenge exclusion
- support equitable decision-making
- create safe spaces for everyone to feel they belong
Customer experience
We will improve our services to make sure they are accessible and responsive to meet everyone's needs, removing any barriers to access and providing a consistent quality experience for all residents.
Care experience support
We will deliver our commitment to make care experience a protected characteristic and in doing so, we will improve our support to care-experienced residents through:
- employment
- education and training
- housing
- financial support
- health and wellbeing
- travel and leisure
- internal equality measures
Workplace culture
We will build a diverse and inclusive workplace where all individuals feel valued, respected and empowered to reach their full potential, regardless of background, identity, or personal circumstances - striving to make everyone feel they belong through:
learning and education
data collection, analysis and action planning
our values and behaviours
our support frameworks
- accessible communication and engagement
These equality objectives were formally approved by cabinet on 24 February 2026.
View or download the Cabinet Report Corporate Equality Objectives 2026-30 (PDF, 156 KB)
Our previous equality objective (2021)
The report to cabinet (PDF, 290 KB) provided an update on the work undertaken across the council on delivering the previous equality objective, approved in April 2021.
This was to:
- establish an equality baseline and deeper understanding of the issues and needs for Gateshead by protected characteristic; to include our residents and our workforce, to support delivery of our strategic approach Thrive and the council pledges
This work focussed on the data and intelligence published from the Census 2021 and improved our understanding of the diversity of Gateshead residents by protected characteristic. This is shown in our Gateshead Equality Profile (insert link). Council services have used this data at a population, service user and workforce level with examples given of work undertaken in the update report.